Thursday, May 29, 2014

This week's Diva Challenge was a lot of fun and I am happy with the results. I am at my mom's house so I was able to go raid my dad's drafting templates for drawing the circles. I may do a few more before I am through!

Still lots of visiting, playing and work to do while I am here. See you next week!

Saturday, May 24, 2014

The letter R must have been on every one's mind this week. The Diva came up with a tangle based challenge centered on Rain and Adele Bruno's String Thing Challenge was all about tangles beginning with R (and a specific string, of course).

So first, here are the Rain pieces I came up with...

This one just has the look of "noise" to me and I used one of the strings I have been trying to work my way through.

In this one I was just trying different ways to fill in the Rain triangles... I like the one where they look like they are cones and I like the partial aura's on the outside one as well.

Then there is the String Thing #41 challenge... this one was a tough string and the R tangles chosen for it were difficult to get to play nicely together.

Finally there is the one random piece that I did to use, or re-use a string that I started to use last week and failed to complete the piece. I really like this piece and it had been so long since I had done Floatfest!

I am getting ready for a week out of town visiting my mom. I am sure it will be a busy one, but I will try to make the time to draw a bit.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

I wrote back in February here that I was going to try to squeeze a little drawing in every day. Well, I did OK for a little while that month and then kept it up sporadically in March while it gradually got to be a little art every few days, then maybe once a week. By the time April rolled around I was lucky to get some ink on paper once or twice that month! As I said a few posts ago, the semester is over and I have a few week break until the summer semester begins and I am taking advantage! I have been able to do a Diva challenge two weeks in a row (here is this week's) and a String Thing challenge two weeks in a row! Woo Hoo!

Here is this week's String Thing entry entitled "A tile within a tile". I used Betweed (one of my all time favorites!) and Beandlines and Beelight and a little Black Pearlz.

And now for the update on the March installments of "Art as much as I could" possibly manage...

March 1st - I like this one, especially the pattern on the right that I can't remember the name of!

March 4th - This one is OK, I always enjoy some nice PopCloud.

March 16th - this one was over several days and is larger than a traditional tile.

March 27th - this is the 15th AED 2014 peice

March 29th - I like this combo of Betweed, a variation of Bunzo, Y-ful and Bridgen with a shaded background.

April 12 - This one is very open and airy.

April 12 - I hadn't done anything in two weeks and then two in a day - I must have needed some relaxation!

This one was just the other day when I was working on the String Thing challenge...
a little different interpretation of the string in this one.

I still have one page left in the current drawing pad so I am sure to have at least a couple more this week! Then I will have to go shopping. I did buy a new pen this week and my goodness, what a change! I had been using some that are nice and black and consistent (and inexpensive!) but do not have a very fine tip and I had kind of forgotten how nice a good fine tip is. I hope to keep up the activity as the summer gets busier.

I have an exciting announcement I can 'kind of' make... Some of my older work has been accepted for publication in a new book due to be out in December. I need to be sure I can say which one before I tell you and maybe I will be able to get a couple of copies to give away on the blog in December. I was pretty excited and will now have to patiently wait for publication.

I was very challenged by this weeks Duotangle Challenge over at The Diva. I love both Punzel and Wells but I have a hard time making Punzel play nicely with anything else... it looks good on its own or 'in front' of other background type patterns but it does not easily integrate into a tile as a whole. I am anxious to see what others have made of this challenge. This was my tile after beginning one that ended up being a bunch of trials of different ideas.

I have been trying to work my way through the string patterns on Tangle Patterns. Last week's Diva Challenge entries were Strings 001 and 002. This week's tile follows most of string 005 - maybe I should do another that uses all the sections. String 004 fell victim to my Punzel experimentation so I will have to make that one up this week and below is string 003. I used the tangle I posted instructions to last week, Hillndale in the bottom right f this one.

And I have been remiss in not updating on my March "Art Every Day" effort - there were some tiles, I just did not get around to posting them. I will try to do that later today in another post.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

I was inspired this week, well OK, mostly last night, to get some drawing done. I had been thinking about this week's Diva Challenge to use her new tangle, potentially named "Somnee" but I hadn't actually done much with it yet. Just a few trials, letting it stew in my head for a few days. This is what came out of the pot.

I will say that I was not immediately in love with this tangle. It has much in common with its sibling tangle Bridgen which I have a hot and cold relationship with... I have trouble with the structure, or lack thereof along with the number of straight lines and amount of open space. I am happiest with the look of these examples because they are pretty 'full'. I did come up with a cute variation that I could not work out completely to my satisfaction in which the circles are faces (like in Lara's step outs) and are connected with 'arms' that have little hands at the ends so it looks like they are reaching out for each other. It gets a little odd looking when the little faces all have multiple arms and are surrounded by tiny little fat cartoon fingers... but the sentiment is nice.

I have been looking through some older things in my binder and came across a pattern that I don't think I ever posted, or at least I can't find it. It is called Hillndale. I thought I would put it up here and try to use it some in my tangling this week. I am trying, during the break between classes to do some tangling each day and use the strings on Tangle Patterns beginning with 001. The two challenge tiles above are the first in the series, string 001 and 002. There will be many more to come, hopefully - I need the practice and the peace and to get in the habit of doing some everyday before my crazy summer begins.

BOY, am I out of practice! Sheesh, put the pen and pencil down for a few months while you are madly typing papers on the computer and teaching teenagers physics and you definitely lose your mojo! Here is the one of two I am willing to share...

I have had occasion to look over some of my work from past years recently and I realize that I badly need some practice. I intend to get it over the next few weeks before summer classes begin. I have decided to start at the beginning of the string list on Tangle Patterns and try to do one new string every day. My previous effort of 'art everyday' did not last very long, but I was still in school at the time. I hope I can keep drawing regularly when classes begin again. It is so relaxing for me and I will need that outlet once I start my first year of teaching in the fall. Beginning in about the middle of July my stress level will sky rocket and my spare time will become non-existent. However, one good piece of advice I heard from a first year teacher is to find one thing that eases your stress and allows you to unwind and do it often. Drawing would fit the bill nicely. I will keep you posted as to my success.

I also got a great peice of news between my last post and now... some of my work will be published in a new tangle book coming out in December 2014. I don't know how much more I can say right now, but I am kind of excited. Maybe I can get a few copies and do a give away on the blog! We will have to wait and see.

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About Me

I am a person of varied but passionate interests. I have always loved both science and art and persue both because I am compelled to. I am currently in my first year of teaching high school science, specifically physics. I still draw or sew when I can, but it is rare that I have the time between grading and planning and taking care of my family of 5.